John Odgren verdict: District attorney asks why no one saw 'red flags'

Norman Miller

Friday

Apr 30, 2010 at 12:01 AMApr 30, 2010 at 8:59 PM

Someone should have seen the warning signs that John Odgren was dangerous before he stabbed and murdered James Alenson, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said today in a passionate press conference.

Someone should have seen the warning signs that John Odgren was dangerous before he stabbed and murdered James Alenson, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said today in a passionate press conference.

"Why was the defendant in a public school, in a position to murder James Alenson?" said Leone, surrounded by the assistant district attorneys who prosecuted the case, victim witness advocates and the police officers who investigated the murder. "It doesn't matter which version you accept - the defendant shouldn't have been in a position to kill James Alenson."

"There were many red flags, many predictors, many warning signs,'' he said. "If these predictors, if these red flags, are now apparent to us, there should have been people along the way who noticed."

Leone said Odgren may have some mental illnesses, but they did not meet the legal standard. He also called in question the defense experts' description of the crime.

"They want us to believe this murder occurred in a 20-second homicidal delusion, bracketed by inappropriate statements caused by his Asperger's," said Leone. He called Asperger's a diagnoses "not attributed to violent acts."

Alenson's family did not attend the press conference, but in a statement read by Leone they thanked the prosecutors and everyone involved in the case and the investigation.

Leone credited the strength of the Alenson family during the three years since the murder.

"A death of a child is something every parent's dread, and no parents should have to bury their child prematurely as the Alensons had to do,'' he said.

Alenson, he said, was a quiet teenager who enjoyed the summer. "He acted out his fantasies wearing a #37 Rodney Harrison jersey, while Odgren's fantasy world was 'a dark world with dark and gruesome images.' "

Lead prosecutor Daniel Bennett spoke about the jailhouse recordings made at a juvenile detention center in Plymouth where he spoke to family and friends. He said those recordings show the kind of person he really was.

"I listened to over 100 hours of tape and the real John Odgren was on those tapes," said Bennett. "He clearly thought he was smarter than the psychologists and he thought he was smarter than the police."

Odgren will be held at the Middlesex Jail in Cambridge tonight and will be sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the chance of parole at his sentencing hearing tomorrow. It is not known if the Alensons will give victim impact statements during the sentencing.

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